BV Keeps His Nose Clean
The World Center of Speed suddenly turned into the World Center of Salvage late Saturday night.
Amazingly, Brian Vickers’ No. 83 Red Bull Toyota survived several close shaves to finish 11th at Daytona International Speedway — a gigantic oval that morphed into a bullring to provide a wild finish on Fourth of July weekend. There were 11 caution flags on the night, and five of those waved in the final 29 laps to force overtime. Brian was right there to see most of them.
“The car’s in one piece. It’s better than a lot of people can say,” he said. “It was definitely a wreckfest.”
With 24 laps to go, Denny Hamlin and Ryan Newman tangled right in front of Brian. He escaped unscathed and did the same four laps later when Casey Mears and Jeff Burton lost it up ahead. Brian took evasive action down pit road, and NASCAR put him 25th in line on the restart.
Another caution flag waved with 11 laps remaining. Crew chief Kevin Hamlin brought Brian in for four tires and adjustments to loosen up the car. He restarted 28th and steered clear of two more melees, with the final one unfolding just off his rear bumper that ended the race under yellow.
The finish was good enough to maintain Brian’s 16th-place position in the driver standings. He’s 112 points out of the top 12.
“That is by far the wildest race I have been a part of in years,” Brian said. “I’ve never been beaten and banged so much in my life.”
After qualifying 13th, AJ Allmendinger had a night he’d rather forget. The No. 84’s right-front tire failed 20 laps into AJ’s first Daytona race, and the car tagged the wall. After getting the hook, AJ spent what seemed like a decade in the garage. He returned to the track 60 laps later and finished 42nd.
The No. 84 snuck up to 37th in the owner standings and is 200 points from the top 35.
posted by Bull Rider at 12:32 PM
22 Comments:
well at least AJ got taken out of a good finish by nascars impound rule and not someone within the team!
According to ESPN sources, Martin Truex Jr and the 1 team are expected to lose 150 points after failing inspections. Truex's team also expects to lose crew chief Kevin Manion, his car chief and an engineer for six weeks, with Manion facing a $100,000 fine.
http://sports.espn.go.com/rpm/nascar/cup/news/story?id=3474786
The 1 team will probably get 100 pt penalty and they should, but they are not really an obstacle to the top 12. We need the guys in the 9-12 spots to keep struggling, as the 83 team keeps running good. It is completely INSANE that we are talking about the chase this year, when last year was so tough! It is AWESOME!
Got to meet BV after his Nationwide qualifying run, and didn't have anything for him to sign. What happened to the TRB Merchandise trailer? A guy at one of the Toyota trailers said that it hasn't been out for a few races now.
Lets get another solid run in Chicago this weekend and get up another spot in the points.
I know what your saying, I too went to the Toyota merchandise trailer to ask where the RB trailer was and he said it hasn't been to the last three races. This was too big of a race not to have the RB merchandise trailer there.
If the merch trailer is not going to be at every track could we please get a schedule for when it is going to be there?
I was able to stop by the Red Bull shop last week and it was awesome. Lots of merch to choose from and free Red Bull. I believe Scott Speed also was walking in as I was on my way out.
If they aren't gonna have the trailer at the track, they should at least offer something online.
actually looking around now brianvickers.com has some merch.
brando brianvickers.com also has the schedule of were the merch trialier is going to be along with autographed appearences. Also check out puma.com
When I was at the Red Bull Shop the lady checking me out said the online shop is going to be open soon. They have updated the online shop graphic on the redbullracingusa.com but the link still goes to nascar.com.
Thanks lovinbv83 I never saw that merch trailer schedule before
No problem brian.Glad that I could help you out a lil.
Every team/driver had the same impound rule as AJ. Maybe it's time to put Speed in the car and see how he does.
They all had the same impound rule but the go or go home drivers had qualifying set up...so AJ's tires were set up differently than none go or go home drivers, therefore the tire blew
Im sure Scott Speed wouldv'e cut the same tire as AJ and would have put in the fence the same as AJ... I love how people make a blown tire AJ's deal and a driver change needed... Im sure the mechanical failures of the last 3 weeks are AJ's fault too??? Cuz Qualifying setups and blown oil lines, and battery connections are all the drivers fault too??? Get a life. Ricky Viers is running the 84 team into the ground... If you tihnk anytihng otherwise you are an idiot.
The 84 team was victims of circumstances at Daytona. In order to make the race they had to qualify with a setup that put them on the edge and everyone was almost postive one of the go or go home cars was going to cause the first caution either because of ill handling causing a wreck or a blown tire. I was just bad luck again for the 84 team.
On a high note, BV you did one hell of a job bring the car from 28th to 11th in the final laps. Those 51 points kept the 83 team in the running for the chase.
so is Rick Viers responsible because he did not check the oil line and the batteries? You forget that it's a team effort.
And a reply to the Anonymous that started this, you're trying to start beef again aren't you. If you're a true fan you should know that Scott isn't ready for Cup series, hell even Scott knows he's not ready yet. And as for AJ on the impound procedure, not everyone was playing the same game in qualifying. Everyone outside the top 35 still had to work on qualifying setups while everyone else inside the top 35 worked on race/handling setups.
The #84 ran their Daytona 500 qualifying setup (or something similar) according to a SPEED interview with AJ. If you don't think there's a flaw to that, take a look at what Jon Wood and David Reutimann did when the race started. They went to the garage because their qualifying setup can't handle in race conditions. Qualifying setups have stiffer springs than race setups so it's understandable why they don't handle.
I would rather have Scott Speed get more stockcar racing experience before a Cup debut than to rush him into Cup car like Guenther Steiner did with AJ Allmendinger last year.
I think Talladega would be a great Cup debut for Scott Speed. And the #84 team should be in the top 35 by then.
Now here's a cool statistic for the #83 team:
http://www.nascar.com/kyn/nbtn/cup/data/last_six.html
BV's average finish at Chicagoland is 10.3.
There are only 45 cars on the entry list for Chicago. Pretty soon qualifying won't be an issue. At that point the 84 team will be on the same playing field. Then we will see what they can do.
I understand it is a team effort, but Viers is the crew chief, it's on him to make sure that those check lists are done perfectly before race time. Also, it's on him to when AJ is running well, to get him a top 10 finish, at Pocono and Michigan, he failed to do that... Just an observation.
Wouldn't it be great for BV if he goes over to the 20 ride next year! Then he would have team mates in every race.
That's a stupid idea, for all the growing pain to go to waste and to go to the 3rd best Gibbs team at the moment. Red Bull has better funding. This is their 2nd year and they are exceeding their own expectations for 2008. Imagine what 2009 will bring.
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